Progressives Versus Corporations

I recently had a day long twitter exchange with a progressive. As usual it always came down to the evils corporations do. Are there corporations that place profits over common morality? Of course. There are corporations doing things that can be seen as crimes against nature, but they typically do them in countries like China.

I tried explaining to the progressive that taxes and government regulations force these companies to move jobs to countries like China where sweat shops thrive. In some cases the poor in China are happy to have jobs even if they are in deplorable conditions. This isn't an excuse for consumers and corporations that ignore the plight of foreign workers—it's just one symptom of poverty and an out of control Chinese government.

In the USA we have a long list of jobs that the left calls, “Jobs that Americans won't do.” For those jobs we import workers from south of the border who are happy to have any job. Those people are so desperate for even the lowest paying American jobs that they sometimes risk their life coming to this country. This is despite such trade agreements like NAFTA that has driven American jobs across the southern border. NAFTA decimated many rural textile communities such as the one in which I live.

The progressive can find fault only in corporations that moved jobs, and none in the government that has control over laws and regulations. Progressives cry that corporations buy politicians. They are right, many politicians govern according to lobby and campaign monies. Of the two, corporations and politicians, we have only direct control over one, those that make up our government.

Many believe that term limits and campaign finance will help solve the corruption problems. It will do little. Term limits just make the elected work quicker to build their personal fortune. Finance control impinges on liberty and the right to freely participate in the election system.

There is no effective way to control power. A nuclear reactor doesn't control the power within, it simply either prevents its transformation or dissipates it in the form of heat. The only way to curb political power is to prevent its creation. There is currently no means to dissipate power in Washington. The founders knew the problems of a centralized power, and that's why they put in place a system that reserved most power for the states. The 17^th Amendment that began the process of electing Senators took a large chunk of power from the states.

There are many movements to transfer power from the federal government back to the states, but none have have drawn strong support from either political party. Repeal of the 17^th Amendment is likely the most popular. Money is the root of all power. Until we remove that power from the federal government then all we will ever do is place band-aids over a bleeding artery. Death of liberty can be the only outcome if we continue the course. As it stands today Nullification is the state's best weapon against federalism. A new option is the Freedom Tax amendment that removes taxing authority from the federal government and places it solely in state hands.

Each week we turn on the news to learn of another case of how the IRS has abused it's power against the Tea Party or some other political organization. The IRS should stand as the symbol of tyranny. Until the IRS is eliminated and that power taken from the Executive Branch, little will change. Whenever a group of citizens threaten to squash the central authority they will be silenced or discredited. The government will use its might and it's control of the media to use the few bad apples in any group to tarnish the message and the movement. We must never forget that the existence of broadcast media is in the hands of the FCC, an arm of the Executive Branch.

We can ask government to pass more laws that will restrict cronyism between itself and corporations, but we all know each regulation has a loophole that can be used and abused. The relationship between government and banking has become legendary. We have only to look at the Federal Reserve Banking System to find cronyism at its greatest. On Jekyll Island the greatest plot ever to control the American economy was hatched. The Federal Reserve Act made taxation obsolete because whenever the government needs money it's simply created. This causes inflation—also known as the poor man's tax. Until the Federal Reserve system came along the US Treasury had to either print actual currency or sell bonds to create debt.

A progressive will never give a clear answer when asked what is the best solution to ending cronyism. This is because they have none, other than to give government even more power and to pass even more useless regulations. We know from history that more government has rarely solved a problem. The progressive will talk in extremes and say people like me want no government. Any sensible person knows this to not be true. The founders maintained that the majority of power should be left with the states. Even states practice cronyism, but at least there they are forced to compete with other states for jobs. One act of cronyism doesn't effect an entire nation and it's global trade.